It will probably come down to if Vasek can beat Tipsarevic, which given both player's form right now is very possible. It would be the biggest win of his career. Novak should win both matches, and Raonic should beat Tipsarevic. The Canadians will be the favorite in doubles but not an overwhelming one.

Milos and Novak have never met and everybody assumes that Novak will win. How do we predict that Novak will win for sure? If there is history with the head to head, then it would be easier to predict the match. That is the best part of this is that the match is played on the tennis court, not on the paper. Upsets do happen and I think this could be one of them. My pet peeve of the prediction based on the rankings, not the h2h stats, even it is their first ever meeting.

Now, Novak will have the jet-lag and we are not so sure if Milos and Novak will actually have a match as the strategy from Serbia could be based on how Serbia play the tie and rest Novak on the day 1. If there is an upset on the day 1, you can bet that there will be likely dead rubber on day 3.

Novak will pull out his Davis cup matches if he is smart to defend titles in china and shanghai.
Novak won't be able defend his two titles in Asia and give no.1 ranking to rafa if Novak plays Davis cup matches.

Milos and Novak have never met and everybody assumes that Novak will win. How do we predict that Novak will win for sure? If there is history with the head to head, then it would be easier to predict the match. That is the best part of this is that the match is played on the tennis court, not on the paper. Upsets do happen and I think this could be one of them. My pet peeve of the prediction based on the rankings, not the h2h stats, even it is their first ever meeting.

Now, Novak will have the jet-lag and we are not so sure if Milos and Novak will actually have a match as the strategy from Serbia could be based on how Serbia play the tie and rest Novak on the day 1. If there is an upset on the day 1, you can bet that there will be likely dead rubber on day 3.

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Another important thing to consider is that Novak has a relatively weak record against big-servers. See for example his negative H2H against Roddick and his 2 upset losses the last couple of years to Isner.

Nole and Raonic have never played each other. That should be interesting.

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There was an article heavily quoting Milos - I think "Amelie Mauresmo" (or the poster posing as her) posted it - all about how serious he was about "taking it to" Serbia, and how much he believed the Canadians had the team & tools to accomplish it.

I'm guessing he had to have interviewed for it before the US Open final, because Nole will be looking for something to obliterate.

Milos and Novak have never met and everybody assumes that Novak will win. How do we predict that Novak will win for sure? If there is history with the head to head, then it would be easier to predict the match. That is the best part of this is that the match is played on the tennis court, not on the paper. Upsets do happen and I think this could be one of them. My pet peeve of the prediction based on the rankings, not the h2h stats, even it is their first ever meeting.

Now, Novak will have the jet-lag and we are not so sure if Milos and Novak will actually have a match as the strategy from Serbia could be based on how Serbia play the tie and rest Novak on the day 1. If there is an upset on the day 1, you can bet that there will be likely dead rubber on day 3.

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I just don't think Milos has the potential to take out Djokovic yet. Each time Isner has upset Djokovic his serve has played a big part but he also took it to Djokovic in rallies. Milos just isn't consistent enough to do that for an entire match against Djokovic, and his serve honestly hasn't looked as great this year as it has in other years so he can't solely rely on it. I'd love for Milos to get this upset, but I just don't see it.

Novak will pull out his Davis cup matches if he is smart to defend titles in china and shanghai.
Novak won't be able defend his two titles in Asia and give no.1 ranking to rafa if Novak plays Davis cup matches.

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Disagree with this.
#1 is already lost, Nadal needs QF at Shanghai to replace Djokovic on #1.
For Djokovic, it would be better to skip Shanghai and Beijing and to focus on Davis Cup and WTFs.
I would suggest him to play a few matches in Paris as a warm-up for WTFs.

#1 is already lost, Nadal needs QF at Shanghai to replace Djokovic on #1.
For Djokovic, it would be better to skip Shanghai and Beijing and to focus on Davis Cup and WTFs.
I would suggest him to play a few matches in Paris as a warm-up for WTFs.

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I don't think so.
Djokovic wants to defend points and win bercy if he can.
Novak knows he still has chance in indoors and he can end up YE no.1

#1 is already lost, Nadal needs QF at Shanghai to replace Djokovic on #1.
For Djokovic, it would be better to skip Shanghai and Beijing and to focus on Davis Cup and WTFs.
I would suggest him to play a few matches in Paris as a warm-up for WTFs.

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I don't think so.
Djokovic wants to defend points and win bercy if he can.
Novak knows he still has chance in indoors and he can end up YE no.1.

Right now, Djokovic is more than 3000 points behind Nadal in the Race.

Thats' a *huge* deficit. To make it up, he'd have to win both upcoming Masters events AND the WTF, with Nadal not even getting to the finals of them.

It seems fairly unlikely, and basically out of his hands - Nadal doesn't even have to win upcoming events, just make it to quarters and semis and stuff like that, to end as #1 no matter how well Djokovic does.

It's played on clay after all, and Djokovic will play since he can earn some cheap points from Davis Cup. He already has some points from davis cup and without it, he would've fallen in his ranking a long time ago.

Djokovic was staying one more day in NY to attend his charity dinner on Tuesday night. So he will not be in Belgrade before late Wednesday or Thursday.

No way he will be ready and properly rested on Friday.

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That's a good point. He'll definitely still be dealing with jet lag on Friday. But I'm still not convinced a mental midget like Popsicle is capable of beating even a badly jetlagged Djokovic, at least not on slow clay.

Serbia should be glad that Friday involves the #1 Singles player of each country against the other's #2. If Djokovic had to play Raonic on Friday, I think that could have been a major upset.

That's a good point. He'll definitely still be dealing with jet lag on Friday. But I'm still not convinced a mental midget like Popsicle is capable of beating even a badly jetlagged Djokovic, at least not on slow clay.

Serbia should be glad that Friday involves the #1 Singles player of each country against the other's #2. If Djokovic had to play Raonic on Friday, I think that could have been a major upset.

The x-factor in this tie is obviously if Djokovic will play or not. If he does, tired or not, I think he'll be able to win his matches and help Serbia to win. If not, it becomes a very winnable tie for Canada.

Even though I'm cheering for Canada, I want Djokovic to play. Canada didn't have to face Nadal, Ferrer or Almagro, Lopez or Verdasco - Spain's top 5 players - in their win over Spain. I want them to beat a full Serbia team.

lol. Sorry, those do not go together. This is Canada's best chance at going far in who knows how long, every Canadian should be cheering against Novak playing. Even if its more legitimate to win with him in the lineup, its also way more unlikely.

For those in Canada, Sportsnet will be broadcasting both singles rubbers from 10am-4pm EST in all regions. Looks like Sportsnet One will also be showing taped footage of the Argentina/Czech Republic tie at 8pm EST.

For those in Canada, Sportsnet will be broadcasting both singles rubbers from 10am-4pm EST in all regions. Looks like Sportsnet One will also be showing taped footage of the Argentina/Czech Republic tie at 8pm EST.

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The interesting thing about this tie is that both Raonic and Nestor-ovic are born in Serbia.
For Nestor, he was born in Belgrade itself, so its like a coming home party

As for Vasek, he could easily hop into Prague for the other semi-final for the
Czechs.

We can't for a minute hope Vasek can take the opening match from Djokovic, but even if it's over in 3, as long as he can stand in there and push him a little, it may set him up well for what may be a crutial cross-over this weekend